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Q: What’s going on with Dustin Brown in Los Angeles? It’s often been said he’s an ideal captain, but I’ve heard rumblings that there could be a change with Mike Richards getting the captaincy. What’s going on? Wasn’t there a captain controversy in Philadelphia too?

(David E in Calgary)

A: The captaincy thing with Brown only came up when there was talk the Kings might trade him at the deadline and suddenly scores of NHL clubs were trying to get in on the hunt. As it turned out, Brown got hot, he wasn’t on the block, and he’s been leading the Kings just fine the last while. Richards was a captain in Philly, so that’s where his name came up. You are right there was a question about who was really captain of the Flyers — Richards, who had the C, or Chris Pronger who did not but is a commanding presence on the ice and in the room.

Q: Where is defenceman Denis Grebeshkov these days? I really liked him as an Edmonton Oiler.

(Jason Prohaska)

A: Grebeshkov, a former first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings, is only 28 and playing for St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League, finishing up a two-year contract there. I believe he belongs back in the NHL. He’s a great skater. Sometimes his defensive work wandered and when he made a mistake it was often a whopper, but he did play lots for Russia when they won the world championship in 2008 and 2009 and were second in 2010. He’s got skill and he’s mobile, never a bad thing in today’s game. The Oilers originally got him from the New York Islanders for defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron in 2007. He played 180 games for the Oilers and scored the team’s 8000th NHL goal, if you’re into trivia, on Feb. 19, 2008. One other bit of information: he played with current general manager Steve Tambellini’s son Jeff with the Kings and they were traded together to the Islanders in 2006 for Mark Parrish. The Oilers dealt him to the Nashville Predators in 2010 for a second-round draft pick (they took Curtis Hamilton with the pick). Shortly into his stay with the Preds, he took a puck in the groin in Nashville and had surgery on a damaged testicle. He went back to Russia, even though several NHL teams wanted to sign him, not for anywhere near the $3.15 million he was making in his last NHL days, however. Like I said, I think he can play in the NHL, certainly as a third-pairing defenceman.

Q: I think the Oilers should keep the kids together on the first two lines and play Ryan Smyth, Shawn Horcoff and Ryan Jones on the third line. What do you think?

(Robert Dawson)

A: As much as I value Jones’s work ethic and his opportunistic touch around the net (he has 14 goals), I see great benefit from having Ben Eager’s skating and banging on that line or even one with the kids. He’s starting to come into his own and when he plays more minutes, he stays away from the silly penalties that have dogged him. Ken Hitchcock, the St. Louis Blues coach, had Eager when Hitchcock coached in Philadelphia and always liked him. He thought Eager could play higher in the lineup than fourth line. He thought he got more into the game with, say, 12 minutes of ice time and wasn’t hell-bent to do stuff as a little-used fourth-liner on just a few shifts. I agree. Jones is the most portable of the Oilers forwards. He can play in lots of different places and he gets his nose dirty. He’s also an excellent penalty killer. When he got scratched for three straight games last month, it was a bit of a red flag, however. To me, it showed the coaches were finding something lacking in his game.

Q: Is there anybody meaner in the NHL today than the Boston Bruins’ Milan Lucic?

(Danny McCullough)

A: No. Not a guy who can play first- or second-line minutes. Lucic has no trouble punching somebody in the face, as he did to Ryan McDonagh in the terrific New York Rangers-Bruins’ game Sunday afternoon. He plowed McDonagh — one of the NHL’s most underrated, good defencemen — in the back in the dying seconds, then when McDonagh objected, Lucic popped him in the kisser. Not fair, not legal, but he is a handful. The Vancouver Canucks are hoping Zack Kassian, secured from the Buffalo Sabres, has some of Lucic in him. The Oilers like the other 29 teams would love a Lucic on their roster.

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